| | Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/Ovation Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 1 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 3 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 6.34 nT Bz: 2.21 nT north more data: ACE, DSCOVR Updated: Today at 1146 UT Coronal Holes: 20 Jul 22 Solar wind flowing from this double coronal hole could reach Earth on July 23rd. Credit: SDO/AIA Noctilucent Clouds Noctilucent cloud season is underway. The clouds are currently spreading as far south as +45N (Oregon). Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar Updated Jul20 SPACE WEATHER NOAA Forecasts | | Updated at: 2022 Jul 20 2200 UTC FLARE | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | CLASS M | 10 % | 10 % | CLASS X | 05 % | 05 % | Geomagnetic Storms: Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm Updated at: 2022 Jul 20 2200 UTC Mid-latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 45 % | 45 % | MINOR | 30 % | 30 % | SEVERE | 05 % | 05 % | High latitudes | 0-24 hr | 24-48 hr | ACTIVE | 05 % | 05 % | MINOR | 20 % | 20 % | SEVERE | 70 % | 70 % | | | | | | | | | | | | Never miss another geomagnetic storm. Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and you'll receive a text message when magnetic storms erupt. Aurora your guides and professional astronomers use this service. You can, too! | | | GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: Minor G1-class geomagnetic storms are possible on July 20th or 21st when a slow-moving CME is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The CME was hurled into space by an unstable filament of magnetism, which erupted on July 15th. Aurora alerts: SMS Text. EXPLODING SOLAR PROMINENCE: Astrophotographer Miguel Claro usually doesn't bother checking solar activity late in the day. The low sun makes a poor target for his camera. "I made an exception on July 10th, and I'm glad I did," says Claro, who caught this magnificent eruption just before sunset in Portugal: "As soon as I realised that a huge prominence was visible and growing so fast and dramatically, I started shooting," he recalls. "The sun was lower than ideal, and the atmosphere had a fine layer of dust coming from Africa. Even late in the day the temperature was very high, around 38º C. To compensate for all these shortcomings, I made a huge effort to gather as many images as possible." "The final result was a 4K high resolution solar movie comprising around 1 hour of images from 1737 UT and 1830 UT," he says. "The gradual change in contrast of the solar disc is caused by the sun getting lower and crossing the Sahara dust layer." ...not a bad way to end the day! Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter URBAN (NOCTILUCENT) LIGHTS: July 2022 has been an unusually good month for noctilucent clouds (NLCs) with activity measured by NASA's AIM spacecraft near a 15-year high. Last night, Lance Taylor saw them from his backyard in Edmonton, Alberta: "NLCs were visible through the city lights of Edmonton," says Taylor. "They appeared low in the northwest and covered about 35 degrees of the horizon. I shot these photos using a Samsung Galaxy S9+." NLCs are Earth's highest clouds. They form in summer when wisps of water vapor rise up to the edge of space and crystalize around specks of meteor smoke. Typical altitude: 83km. The northern season for NLCs ranges from late May to mid-August, so stay tuned for another month of sightings. Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter APOLLO 11 PROOF SILVER DOLLAR (COLLECTOR'S ITEM): Fifty-three years ago today, Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon. Like the original astronauts, this rare Apollo 11 silver dollar has been to space, too: You can have it for $249.95. The US Mint created Apollo 11 silver dollars to celebrate the first Moon landing--but you can no longer buy them from the Mint. You can, however, get one from Earth to Sky Calculus. The coin was flown to the stratosphere onboard the students' cosmic ray research balloon. The silver dollar is curved and reproduces the helmet of astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Reflected in Buzz's visor are Neil Armstrong, the United States flag, and the lunar lander. The opposite side of the coin shows Neil's iconic footprint on the Moon. Included is a greeting card showing the coin in flight and a certificate of authenticity. Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All sales support hands-on STEM education Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On July 20, 2022, the network reported 12 fireballs. (10 sporadics, 1 psi Cassiopeid, 1 alpha Capricornid) In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] Potentially Hazardous Asteroids ( PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. On July 20, 2022 there were 2282 potentially hazardous asteroids. | Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) | 2022 NJ | 2022-Jul-15 | 3.4 LD | 8.9 | 23 | 2022 LR1 | 2022-Jul-16 | 9.3 LD | 4.7 | 42 | 2022 KY4 | 2022-Jul-17 | 15.9 LD | 7.6 | 91 | 2021 OT | 2022-Jul-17 | 16.5 LD | 11.2 | 20 | 349068 | 2022-Jul-19 | 17.6 LD | 22.9 | 756 | 2017 RX2 | 2022-Jul-24 | 17.2 LD | 14.2 | 17 | 2022 NV1 | 2022-Jul-24 | 12.9 LD | 8.1 | 52 | 2022 OA | 2022-Jul-25 | 5 LD | 10.5 | 48 | 2022 ML3 | 2022-Jul-26 | 7.6 LD | 1.5 | 13 | 2022 NU1 | 2022-Jul-29 | 12.3 LD | 8.3 | 46 | 2016 CZ31 | 2022-Jul-29 | 7 LD | 15.6 | 129 | 531944 | 2022-Jul-30 | 18.2 LD | 5.9 | 192 | 2020 PP1 | 2022-Aug-01 | 13.1 LD | 3.7 | 17 | 2020 PN1 | 2022-Aug-03 | 9.7 LD | 4.6 | 29 | 2015 FF | 2022-Aug-12 | 11.2 LD | 9.2 | 17 | 2019 AV13 | 2022-Aug-22 | 19.1 LD | 8.8 | 135 | 2020 QW3 | 2022-Aug-22 | 14.1 LD | 18.1 | 30 | 2015 QH3 | 2022-Aug-22 | 5.6 LD | 7 | 14 | 2017 BU | 2022-Aug-29 | 15.8 LD | 7 | 32 | 2021 CQ5 | 2022-Sep-01 | 8.7 LD | 13.5 | 7 | 2020 PT4 | 2022-Sep-15 | 19.7 LD | 10.8 | 39 | Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere | SPACE WEATHER BALLOON DATA: Almost once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with sensors that detect secondary cosmic rays, a form of radiation from space that can penetrate all the way down to Earth's surface. Our monitoring program has been underway without interruption for 7 years, resulting in a unique dataset of in situ atmospheric measurements. Latest results (Nov. 2021): Our balloons have just measured a sudden drop in atmospheric radiation. It happened during the strong geomagnetic storms of Nov. 3-4, 2021. Here are the data: This is called a "Forbush decrease," named after American physicist Scott Forbush who studied cosmic rays in the early 20th century. It happens when a CME from the sun sweeps past Earth and literally pushes cosmic rays away from our planet. Radiation from deep space that would normally pepper Earth's upper atmosphere is briefly wiped out. We have measured Forbush decreases before. For example, here's one from Sept. 2014. The Forbush Decrease of Nov. 3-4, 2021, was the deepest in the history of our 7-year atmospheric monitoring program. Radiation levels in the stratosphere over California dropped nearly 20%, more than doubling the previous record from our dataset. En route to the stratosphere, our sensors also pass through aviation altitudes, so we can sample radiation where planes fly. This plot shows how the Forbush decrease was restricted to the stratosphere; it did not affect lower levels of the atmosphere: The dose rates shown above are expressed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. The higher you fly, the more radiation you will absorb. .Who cares? Cosmic rays are a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. They can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. According to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, crews of aircraft have higher rates of cancer than the general population. The researchers listed cosmic rays, irregular sleep habits, and chemical contaminants as leading risk factors. Somewhat more controversial studies (#1, #2, #3, #4) link cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. .Technical notes: The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners. Data points in the first graph ("Stratospheric Radiation") correspond to the peak of the Regener-Pfotzer maximum, which lies about 67,000 feet above central California. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. Physicists Eric Regener and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | information about sunspots based on the latest NOAA/USAF Active Region Summary | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | | BestCSGOGambling is the best site for everything related to CSGO gambling on the web | | To find reviews of new online casino sites in the UK try The Casino DB where there are hundreds of online casino reviews complete with bonuses and ratings. Alternatively, Online-Casinos.xyz is another massive directory of online casinos listing sites for the UK and Worldwide. Casinos that offer Rupees for bonuses are very generous to Indian players. 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